March 28th, 2004 · Comments Off
Bill Joy has said that the important thing most people forget about
standards is that they are essentially for machine-to-machine
interaction. The big advances in standards come when we find
simple scalable ways to tie together machines that matter into
vast interactive networks.
XML was a revolutionary development because it allowed different machines to talk to each other.
RSS is revolutionary because I can write this simple line of text, and
publish it into a world of machines that do important distribution and
display things with it–in a context of millions of machines.
Now we need a next generation of RSS–or perhaps just more clever use
of this version of RSS (I’m not qualified technically to debate this critical issue)–to tie millions of personal computers
into the next generation of video boxes, such as TIVO and Digeo and
Akimbo–and thus millions of televisions.
Oh yea, and perhaps we might think about hacking digital radio, too…
Tags: Economics and cybenetics
March 28th, 2004 · Comments Off
Hey, I know some of us are tired, but we need some more innovation–fast.
In my view the most basic use of the Internet in national politics has now become a
commodity. The most basic three elements–spin blogging, fundraising, and
candidate information are rapidly going from being a
differentiator to being an expected element of a decent campaign. To demonstrate my point, Google
around and you will find lots and lots of folks who will set up a
fundraising site almost overnight.
The challenge ahead, for those
who want to make a difference, now must somehow address more powerfully
the full TV-amplified circus of US and world personalities and
events. To my mind, no one has really cracked the code on this
one. The closest are perhaps those who are putting video into
emails–principally the RNC and the Bush campaign–to do video spin a
la the Bush 6 million person email trying to correct the disastrous
impression the president made in the Tim Russert TV interview.
Perhaps we could combine RSS enclosures and peoples’ local footage
shot, say, in the middle east (of the world) and the middle west swing
states (of the United States) to send around a more complete view of
our world. And Andrew Grumet and Armando Stettner: could we
hack TIVO boxes to play these videos?
Tags: Presidential politics